The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Stevie Kremer carries local torch to women’s title
The Power of Four ski mountaineering race is 25 miles long with close to 12,000 vertical feet of climbing and takes the leaders more than five hours to complete.
“It’s a bit of a stinger,” admits Bryan Wickenhauser.
And in the end, the title came down to just two seconds.
Defending Power of Four champions Wickenhauser and partner Brian Smith ended up in second place this time, behind Aspen’s Gaston brothers. Crested Butte Community School teacher Stevie Kremer teamed up with Spaniard Gemma Arro of Park City to take the women’s Power of Four title.
The race takes teams of two on a four-mountain tour in the Aspen valley, starting at the base of Snowmass ski area and finishing at the base of Aspen Mountain.
The course is a mix of groomers, bump runs and backcountry skiing, throwing every possible snow and weather condition at the athletes.
Things got off to a rough start for the defending duo. As teams were lining up and the call was put out that the race was starting in three minutes, Smith made a dash to finish off one pre-race preparation. When the gun went off, Smith was still missing and the field of racers headed off, leaving Wickenhauser and Smith behind.
“We spotted the field a good 20 to 25 seconds,” says Wickenhauser.
The two skiers made quick work of the field though, and were soon off the front with the Gaston brothers and Mike Kloser from Vail and his partner right on their heels.
While the temperature was 6° Fahrenheit at the start, and calm, racers were handed a smack down from Mother Nature as they headed above treeline to the top of Highlands Bowl on the Aspen Highlands ski area.
“We had no inkling that it was nuclear on Highlands Ridge,” says Wickenhauser. “It was epic.”
Teams were blasted by sustained winds hovering between 25 and 40 miles per hour, with gusts up to 60 miles per hour.
“We were walking like a drunk man,” says Wickenhauser. “You had to look left to look straight.”
While Wickenhauser and Smith kicked off their skis to boot up to the top of Highlands Bowl, the Gaston brothers and team Kloser kept skinning and passed Wickenhauser and Smith to push them back to third place.
Wickenhauser and Smith caught back up to the Gaston brothers by the top but team Kloser had already dropped into the bowl and disappeared into the milk jug conditions.
“I thought we were racing for second place at that time,” says Wickenhauser.
By the time the course turned back up the Midnight Mine Road to Richmond Ridge, Wickenhauser and Smith had moved back into first place and were feeling good.
“All of a sudden our spirits were lifted,” says Wickenhauser.
They carried their lead to the top of Aspen Mountain but knew the Gaston brothers were hot on their heels and gunning to defend their home hills.
“Brian and I knew we had big targets on our backs,” says Wickenhauser. “There was some technical descending and the local boys were only 10 or 15 seconds back.”
Both teams traded off in the lead, taking turns in the “slipstream” on the descent with GPS devices registering their top speed at 59 miles per hour down Spar Gulch.
In the end, the local team got the best of Wickenhauser and Smith, winning by a mere two seconds with a time of 5 hours, 29 minutes and 23 seconds.
“It was a full on race the whole day, it was war out there,” says Wickenhauser. “We lost by [expletive] two seconds.”
Crested Butte team of Pat O’Neill and Marshall Thomson finished in fourth place in a time of 5 hours, 51 minutes and 56 seconds and Jon Brown and Billy Laird posted a time of 6 hours 3 minutes and 6 seconds to come in sixth place.
Kremer and Arro had a flawless race enroute to winning the women’s title and finishing seventh overall with a time of 6 hours, 4 minutes and 5 seconds.
“We had such a great race in terms of gear, transitions and no one bonked,” says Kremer. “No towing was involved.”
The two took off from the start, leaving the rest of the women’s field in their wake.
“Gemma just motors on the up,” says Kremer. “She led the pace and I just got comfortable and we never looked back.”
The only trouble they had was on the Highlands Ridge as the wind took its toll on Arro and the two got lost temporarily.
“She had wicked frostbite on her face,” says Kremer. “There was one spot where we had no idea where we were and we just decided, let’s head down and hope for the best.”
The local contingent now has their collective sights set on the Elk Mountains Grand Traverse on Friday, March 30.
“It’ll just make us train harder in March,” says Wickenhauser.
